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The pilot of the rescue helo that picked me up (finally) after my first crash was a chief. circa 1960. When I checked in to VT-21 as an instructor in '65, the leading Chief wore aviator wings. He had some miror problem that kept him from passing his flight physical, but every time we got a new...

We had a NA-4E at China Lake that we used to chase BQM-34s. It had an E fuselage sitting on C wings. It had no C/B panels in the cockpit. Guess they didn't want the drivers using them as switches as we did in F-9s.

We had a phantom sheeter on the Connie who targeted fuel stations and then called the bridge to report his deed. The V-4 CWO was about 6'3" and built like a tank. He stood up at all hands quarters and said "The next time this happens we will catch the perpetrator and I will make him eat it and I...

Is this the same Satrapa that was pictured in the Crapus Crusty newspaper chasing his own car into the surf on Padre Island? At the time he was a stud in VT-21.

When I was stationed at NORIS, a P-2V flight engineer got tired of waiting for the pilots and fired up the bird and flew it to NAS New Orleans. Landed it OK, but ran it off the end of the runway. Heard that he got busted to E-5. When I was at Whiteing there was a NAVCAD that would land at...

The Able Dogs in ATU-301 had LABS gear, but we didn't get to practice with it. Did get to do "mast head" bombing on Padre Island when the weather was crappy. Roll in from 1000', level at 50' and drop when the pipper crossed thje target. Hits between 9 and 3 o'clock didn't count. At the briefing...

Got over a thousand hours in Able Dogs behind the R-3350, two of which failed on me. Was a guppy centurian on the One Nothing Maru where I put one in the barricade on a black-ass night. Plus time in the training command and proficiency flying in the T-34 and T-28. Was current in the U-3 at...

In the Air Farce they tell you what you can do and everything else is forbidden. In the Navy they tell you what you can't do and anything else is allowed (at least once). Example: The admiral looks out his window one morning and sees two AD-5W Guppys line up on the mat and make a section...

Re the real time translations: at a debrief for the night that the two MiG-21s came south and fired a missile at the BUFFs, I was told that the reason that no one got excited when they headed south was that the real time translator translated their controler's transmission as " Don't be nervous...

12 weeks? Preflight was 16 weeks for both AOCs and NAVCADs way back. During our welcome aboard speech, the officer in charge of the kaydet regiment said "Look at the man on your left. Look at the man on your right. 18 months from now one of you won't be with us." Things like the step test, swim...

The Air Force debriefer told us that the Mig-21 pilot that blew by us and shot a missile at a BUFF formation was Comrade Tomb. But then those guys told us lots of stuff. He did come within 10 miles of us since his "spinscan" radar saturated one of my operator's reciever, but he was after bigger...

Climbing out one night in my EA-3, headed for the "Black Track" (southern end at NKP) when I had to turn on my lights to avoid traffic. I was well above 20K and noticed 4 or 5 rounds detonating well below me and noted the TACAN posit. When I got back and told the other EA-3 EWACs, they said "Oh...

Re: shot at. Does that guy at 262/42 out of ch 77 count?

Beards were allowed when Zumwalt was CNO. A lot of the chiefs didn't like it and were holding liberty cards until the ID card picture matched the current face. Z heard about it somehow and sent out a Z-Gram saying "When I said the troops may wear beards, I meant the troops may wear beards."

In the old VAW-11 Guppy Dets, I'd go from number six in seniority to OinC when ever the boat got within range of NORIS. They said " You're single. You have no reason to fly ashore." Right!

If they didn't want you to smoke, they wouldn't have put ash trays in them. Each station in AD-5Ws and Ad-5Qs had its own ashtray. Also we had a P-51 at China Lake for testing in 1974. It had a recoiless rifle on each wing tip. Since I had over a thousand hours of taildragger time, I convinced...

Take offs and landings in the Able Dog were canopy open. You couldn't carry your cigarettes in your sleeve pocket as the slip stream would beat the tobacco out of the papers.

Seem to recall an F-102 having the same thing happen during a test. Like the F-11F it had the "coke-bottle" fuselage.

Hell, at least four of my preflight classmates got divorced to come in the program. We started out as an all enlisted NAVCAD class. At that time, the rule was simpely "not married" unlike the midsheeps whose rule was "not married and never have been." At the winging at Corpus every Friday there...

Qualed on the Antietum in Oct of '59 with paddles in a T-28C. 2 T&G, 6 traps and 1 bolter (first of many). Still remember the LSO call "Cleared to lower your hook." We were flying out of Bronson Field, allthough we occasionally bounced at Bloody Barin. Qualed in the AD-6 in ATU-301 in June of '60.

Rate change E-2 to NAVCAD-4 in September '58. Wings in June '60. Aircraft T-34B, T-28B & C, T-2V (instruments at Memphis), AD-6 & AD-5. Was an Ensign for less than a year as NAVCAD commisions were back dated to when you completed basic. Had ridden two in before pinning on JG.

One of my preflight classmates enlisted on a kiddie cruise, passed the two year collage equivalentcy test, got selected as a NAVCAD, but was held at the recruit training center until his 18th birthday and then sent him to preflight. Also I deployed as an ensign.

Those were probably carpet baggers that moved in after I left. Like the ones that elected Muskey.

Have not seen that one either, but did get a FNKHS when my right wing kinda dropped crossing the ramp. Better that FNKUA that a friend got when his left wing dropped.

Grew up prowling the Maine woods around Sebago Lake and as far as we knew there were no poisonous critters in Maine. Not bugs, not snakes, nothing. The old timers always said that there's nothing in the Maine woods that will hurt you if you don't bother them. So when a couple dozen known...

Check out Steve Pless' citation. We were preflight classmates (Class 38-58) and although what he did was unreal, I wasn't all that surprised that he was the only Marine aviator to get the MOH in 'Nam.

One gusty day at Kingsville, the pattern was crowded and the tower had already changed runways once, when an instructor type voice said "Kings ower, what are you calling your winds?" A mystery voice replied "Maria"

When the altitude reporting altimeters first came out, air controlers would ask your altitude and then correct you if you'd rounded it off. One night I heard LA center ask an airliner his altitude, and he came back with " Twenty thousand feet, but for you nineteen ninety five." with the accent.

The black whales were RA-3Bs. When VQ-1 moved to Guam (Guam is good - - By order of the commanding officer) The VAP squadron and the typhoon hunters were combined with us. On all of the mission that I ever flew, it was a seven man crew: pilot, nav, spook officer and four spook techs. As for the...

Was flying EA-3s out of DaNang during that time frame and on the rare day when we didn't have a mission it was not unusual to be asked the go someplace and pick up a load of BUFEs. I always declined. Go to Cubi to pick up a load of Manila Miller (painted label), for the Bat's Nest, fine, but...

Was in the Dog pattern one black-ass night waiting for the Demons to finish up so that I could get my initial night quals in the Gutless Guppy. I saw a series of three flashes on the ship. The first was when the Demon lit his burner. The second second was when the engine mounts failed on the...

Have used commissarys on Guam, Atsugi, and else where. The one that was by far the worst was at Gitmo. It was the only place to get food. Since I was in FTG and deployed to Norfolk or Mayport a couple times a month to ride the carriers, I could hump back 40 or 50 pounds of baby food, formula...

Guess it was on the '67 cruise that the helo guys painted their version of the "City of ******" on their birds. Looks like your name on NK 614 on that cruise.

The narrator on the Victory at Sea episode about the Battle of Midway said " Army B-17s dropped bomb after bomb after bomb - - - -- - - - and scored miss after miss after miss"

At the height of the Tailhook investigations, I heard an info-babe say " I hope this puts an end to the cult of the young warrior." on the radio. Sadly I think that she got her wish.

My, my, how things change. Pulling into Cubi after a long haul on Yankee station, the CO went on TV to brief the troops on conduct ashore. He finished up by saying, " If don't want to get in trouble with me when you go ashore, do what sailors are supposed to do. Get drunk, get laid, and fight...

With the Mex Village gone, where would one start?

We would head for the sandbag bunker near the VQ-1 area until an Air Farce guy told us that it had been condemned and would collapse from a near miss. Ater that I'd go to the Bat's Nest, a Butler hut that we used as an O'club. It had a two high sand filled 55 gallon drum shield around it and...

Started working out of DaNang in '70 and heard that it was one of the officer's barber shop guys that they found on the wire. However, if the gals that worked in the chow hall took their rice bowls home when they were through work, we would get rocketed that night. If they left them at the chow...

It's a modification of the old drinking song "Salvation Army" as in "Salvation Army, throw a nickel on the drum, save another drunken bum."

That's really a TA-3B. The TA-3B that VQ-1 maintained for 7th fleet was BuNo 144860. Flew it a few times and no, I'm not the one that ran it off the end of the runway at Da Nang with Adm Hyland on board. (The Air Force erected a very fancy sign designating that area "Hyland's Overun"

Back when "our" bone yard was Litchfield Park, as a fresh caught ensign I got to ferry an AD-5Q there from NORIS. As far as equipment, the only requirement was that "all the holes be filled". The UHF and most of the engine instruments worked and little else. It was an IFR (I follow roads) flight...

Spent a few hundred hours being tossed around by a guy in a yellow van many miles away. (QF-9, QT-33, QF-86, & QT-38). You can get some wild rides when the guy pulling the G's can't feel them.

Former NAVCAD, but from way back. On the NAVCAD rank insignia - if he calls it anything but a "solo bar" he's a fake. When I was instructing in VT-21 I had the last NAVCAD to come through that squadron in the late summer of 1966.

The coasties used to wear them turned up to cover that shield so that they would appear to be sailors.

I think it was between the '67 cruise and the 68' cruise, probably RVAH-5. I launched the particpants off the waist with the bow area packed with wives and kiddies. Not a comfortable evolution, but a hell of a show.

A Vig used to "dump and burn" as part of dependents day cruise airshows. The announcer would say that an enemy was headed for the ship and that the F-4 were attacking him. He'd then say that the F-4 had fired aa missle and when the Vig started trailing fire, he'd yell that they got him.

Understand that wiring the slats shut was the first thing the Israelis did when they got the Top Gun A-4s back in the 70s.

When I was a NAVCAD going through advanced training at ATU-301 (AD-6s) in Corpus, middies would occasionally show up on base for orientation flights with the VP guys. They decided that since the gold chin strap on their combination caps was wider than ours ( 3/8 in vs 1/4 in) that we should...

Got my wings a while back, my number is V-16762. And no, I idn't fly the Yellow Peril. Did live in Coronado a couple of times though. Apartments on Orange. The snake ranch with the best parties in the early sixties was 601 First.